snapshots of life
by The Green Huntress 109
Summary: It's that time of year again. When the guilt ways heavy and he remembers the friends he lost, but especially the woman he saw as a sister. Luckily Ritza is there to help. This is something that refused to leave me alone, its an AU with a OC. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1

The colonel kept his back straight and face blank in his usual façade ,as he walked past his subordinates without so much as a nod of acknowledgement. Most would think this rude but they were all use to his blank faced stares and Riza knew why he was acting so closed of today of all days.

Mustang wasn't the only one acting odd today, most in the office had noticed the sad sighs and distractedness of Lt. Hawkeye and left them wondering what could have happened to have both of them in such a depressed mood

Roy dropped the façade as soon as his solid doors enclosed him in gloomy darkness and he visibly sagged now that all eyes were safely on the other side of the door.

"You would've been what? Thirty two?" he whispered to the room not expecting an answer from the person it was directed at, how could they? A dry chuckle left his mouth as he made his way to his desk and dropped like a stone into the familiar seat, "Would've." he muttered sadly with a shake of his head. One hand reached out towards the drawer of his desk where some personal photos sat, the rest were at home, he wondered idly why he subjected himself to this each year. Really he didn't need to ask he already knew the answer.

Guilt.

Shaking his head Roy pulled the drawer open in one firm jerk as if his misery were the desks fault, and pulled out a few photographs from his youth. His eyes softened when the first image was of the four of them; Maes in the centre of the group smiling at the camera with one arm slung over an annoyed Roy to the far left, Ritza only barley showing a small smile at her friend's expense, hair short for practical reasons and to the right. The face that caught his attention though was the shorter woman in the bottom left; her right hand held up in a peace sign while the other pushed the mousy brown hair from her blue eyes. She was smiling wide and her eyes seemed to sparkle with joy. They had been in civilian's clothes that day. Roy in black slacks and a button down instead of one of his three piece suites he was so fond of. That was her fault he though fondly, she was always good at convincing him.

Roy closed his eyes for a second remembering her soft slightly higher pitched voice than most girls. When he opened them his eyes traced the shoddy scrunched up lettering that was the woman's handwriting. He could hardly see it with only a slither of light illuminating the scrawl, but he knew the word by heart now.

It read: _Roy Mustang (left), Maes Hughes (Centre), Ritza Hawkeye (right) and Ashly Summers. The best friends in the world._

Roy remembered this. It was when they had made it through the end of training and Ashly was convinced they would rise to the top together. They had graduated and given their positions, all were in different sectors.

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Roy smirked "Well we made it, finally." His voice full of pride. Ritza gave a nod and shook her head as Maes was talking to a girl he swore he was in love with, but with Maes he gave his all to everything and this would probably end in another failure. Ashly laughed at Maes attempt to be cool and ending up tripping some of the other people searching the market and ended up looking like a fool, the girl seemed to like it though.

"Remind me why we let Maes drag us to the market?" Roy asked sullenly. Ashly rolled her eyes at him, which he saw but didn't comment on, her fingers playing with the strap of her camera around her neck.

"Because his true love is here" she clasped her hands over her heart dramatically, letting go of her camera strap and gave a laugh "and he wants us all to do something together before we all ship out." she dropped her hands and gave a sad smile, in a small voice she said "I'm gunna miss you guys you know."

It had been a long time since she had had to leave Roy again, he knew that when they had met up again after so many years she was ecstatic.

Ritza patted her arm "And we will miss you. I'm sure you will be calling Roy enough that it will be like we were never apart." Roy gave a loud groan to let both women know how much he was apposed to that idea. "Please no, it was bad enough living with her when we were kids." Ashly smacked his arm playfully and Roy grinned to show he was only messing. "And I guess she's too short the get on a train, she'd fall through the cracks." Roy teased leaning on her head to add insult to injury.

Ash growled pushing him off "I am not short, you are all abnormally tall. And." she held up a finger, her voice turned to that of a school teacher, "Your head's so full of air that it stretched you out." she smiled as if it was fact and that Roy should know this. Roy ruffled her hair up into a mess, which she then tried to straighten out with a growl. "Brat." He muttered fondly.

"Asshat." she replied good-naturedly.

Maes ran over to them with a love sick smile on his face, "She had to go home." He said dreamily and Ashly chuckled at his faraway look. "Her eyes are so beautiful."

Roy sighed shaking his head and Ritza looked like she was counting to ten in her head, when Ashly suddenly held up her camera and snapped a shot of Ritza and Roy. Roy blinked away the flash and Ritza gave her the deadly glare, but Ashly was too busy smiling, "Because this is the last day we'll be together for a while, why don't we take a picture of all of us?" even though she had asked she didn't wait for answers. Maes had snapped out of his glazed state and grabbed Roy around his shoulders. "That's a great idea." Maes beamed

Ashly had grabbed a random passers-by and asked the older man if he could take their pictures, the man had agreed and Ashly took her place in front of Roy. "Smile guys." she shrilled pushing her hair back and holding up her fingers in a peace sign. Roy glanced at Maes with the usual annoyed expression that usually accompanied most interaction between the two. Ritza was smiling slightly at Roy's face as the man snapped the shot.

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Roy ran a hand over his face "I'm sorry Ash. So sorry." his voice cracked slightly as he fought his emotions and refused to give in to the erg to cry. Ash would kick his ass for crying over her, she never liked it when he cried. His eyes landed on another picture, one much older than the first. Roy's face was more relaxed as he smiled at Ashly crammed next to him on his left as she tried to take a good picture of both of them single handed. It had turned out slightly diagonal, just about catching the doorway of the Hawkeye house hold and a scowling Ritza blocking any view of the inside.

They were all so young then. Ash's hair had still been cut in the short choppy mess she called a hairstyle that was what she got for cutting it herself. Damnit Ash ,he thought, It should have been me.

Hawkeye sighed for the umpteenth time and stared unseeingly at the pieces of paper needed to be signed, why was she here when Roy was probably in the dark staring at old pictures of them with what little light he had let in. Ash and Roy had grown up together in Madam Christmas' care and she knew he loved her like a sister. Sighing she stood. He should not have to suffer alone.

Her long even strides soon had her at the door and opening from bright sunlight to the dark oppressing office.

"Sir." Hawkeye stood by the door and squinted into the darkened room only just making out the outline of her superior. She saw the figure shift slightly but when he didn't answer she walked swiftly towards the drawn curtain, "How do you expect to get work done in the dark." She chastised him firmly, masking her pain as usual. It wouldn't do to have him worry about her too, especially today of all days.

"Stop...don't." The colonel's voice sounded strained but did the job of stopping Hawkeye from opening the curtains.

"Sir?"

Roy said nothing for a time, Ritza stepped away from the windows and the obstruction to the summer sun.

"Do you remember when you two first met?" he whispered. Ritza didn't have to ask him to clarify, she knew what he meant.

"I do." she whispered back with a sad smile. She didn't know why she was whispering too, maybe they were both afraid that talking any louder would break the stream of memories both good and bad.

Roy gave a huff of laughter "Do you remember what the first thing she did was?" even in the dark she knew he was smiling.

Ritza couldn't help a small smile on her own face "She was always the dutiful sister." She commented remembering that day.

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The loud insistent knocking nearly gave Ritza a headache, whoever was on the other side had never heard of knocking quietly. But then she supposed it defeated the whole purpose of knocking if it was too quiet the other person didn't hear it, therefore making it a huge waste of time.

Even so it still didn't solve her headache.

Roy rushed to the door "I'll get it." he threw over his shoulder along with a brilliant smile. Ritza snorted at his behaviour, she would have thought the Furhur was here by the way he sped to the door.

Ritza leaned back on her chair to glimpse who was the cause of the incessant knocking. "Bout time." a female voice grumped although, good naturedly. Roy's broad shoulders were blocking her view of the mysterious woman. "Ash!" Roy shouted delighted and picked the woman up spinning her into the house. Ritza caught a flash of black hair and her clothes were a blur of blue and white. Finally he set her down "Hey you nearly crushed this." Ash said holding up a brand new camera, "Come on Roy, I need to take a picture of our reunion." the little woman grinned pulling the grinning man out the door. Ritza followed them out but stopped at the door scowling at them, Ritza for some reason didn't like this woman.

Ash snapped the photo and Roy blinked the flash out of his eyes, "I thought you went to Xing?" Ash nodded stroking her camera lovingly before turning to Roy.

"Yeah I did, but the guy teaching me said that there was a teacher down her who worked more extensively with static electricity and electricity in general." she gave him a grin "We're neighbours."

Ritza coughed to get their attention, Roy had obviously forgotten she was here.

Roy turned "Oh Ash this is Ritza, Ritza Ash." Ash looked her up and down as if assessing.

"The one you write about?" Roy looked shocked she knew, "I do read the letters you send." she said meeting Ritza's eyes.

"You never write back." Roy muttered sullenly. "So?" He asked. Ash turned to him and grinned.

"I approve." Ritza had no idea what she was approving but by the way she had seized her up she assumed it was her. But for what?

"I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?" Ritza asked irritated, her headache coming back full force and she refused to show weakness in front of this stranger. Ash walked up to her and stuck her hand out smiling widely "Ashly Summers, your new neighbour and Roy's big sister." Ritza gave a smile, suddenly this Ashly wasn't so bad.

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**So this wouldn't leave me alone until I made it. This is my first FMA fic and I'm not sure if I'll continue this or write some more, I guess it depends on you guys and girls. If I have enough people who want more then I'll do it.**

**Laters **

**\- Huntress **


	2. Chapter 2

Ritza glanced over the colonel's left should at the picture of the four of them. "I still don't know why she dyed her hair brown that year." she commented. Roy gave a huff of laughter and Ritza gave him a concerned looked out the corner of her eye. Roy turned onyx eyes filled with unshead tears to her, the large smile did nothing to cheer her spirits. "It was an accident." He said looking down at the picture again "She was trying to use alchemy to grow her hair longer and it backfired." he grinned at her remembering how it happened.

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"Can too."  
"Can not."  
Can too."

Ashly glared at Roy sat on his bed nonchalantly reading an alchemy book and arguing on her skill as an alchemist. The position of her sat on the floor having Roy taller than her even if it was because of where they were sat didn't improve her mood. "I doubt you could make it grow an inch. But hey, if you prove me wrong then maybe you could make yourself taller too." She had said she wanted to make her hair grow longer, even though she had grown it out to her shoulders she wanted it longer. Roy gave her a smirk that lit a deadly fire in her eyes. He knew that she would do anything to prove him wrong and it amused him that she might mess it up and become a hairy gorilla. Roy chuckled and Ashly pulled out her alchemy notes, he recognized it by the doodles she had all over the cover. "Come on Mustang, leave the girl alone." One of the other guys said from the top bunk to the left. Ashly had somehow snuck from her women's bunker to the men, no one reported it because it was a common occurrence with her and she would just ignore the commanding officers.  
Ashly didn't look up as she flipped through page after page of notes before grabbing a chalk from her pocket and drawing the alchemic circles on the floor and pressing her hands to it.

All the men lent over the front of their beds to see what would happen to the woman as the by product of alchemy lit up the room and caused shadows to dance behind the men, twisting in to giants. When it died down Roy gave a bark of laughter, it wasn't what he had expected but he would take it.  
Ashly pulled at a lock of hair for further inspection and gave a sound of dismay at the now split ended mousy brown hair that had once been black. "Noooo!" she growled "Now it'll be shorter." Roy got up from his position on the bed and patted Ashly on the head.  
"There, there. At least you have the hair to go with your height. Mouse." At his words Ashly took a swing at him, which he deftly dodged with a laugh. The men were still looking but at Ashly's glare they shrank back in their bunks. "If you excuse me I have some hair to chop off." she muttered standing and gave a looked to Roy "Your fault." she exclaimed before trudging out of the room.

The next day at breakfast Ashly slide next to Roy with a bowl of porridge and her face down turned so no one could see the embarrassment staining her cheeks. Ritza followed suite having had to help her cut the back of her hair she had left at the same time as Ashly and knew about the hair change.

Maes however didn't.

"Hey, who are you? Are you new?" Maes asked her excitedly as he pushed his glasses further up his nose and lent forward a little to better see the'new' girl. Roy snickered beside her and Ashly threw him a dark look before muttering a 'shut up' aimed at Maes. She looked up at him with pink cheeks.  
"Whoa Ash, what happened?" Maes asked leaning further forward and pulling at her now short mousy brown hair. Roy laughed quietly but he knew she could see his shoulders shaking.  
"I dyed it." She told him glaring at Roy to say otherwise. Roy held up his hands in surrender still smiling.

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Ritza gave a small "Oh." at the story, "She told me the split ends happened when she dyed it." Roy was smiling now, tears drying and his eyes sparkled with the memory of Ashly.  
"I know, she made me promise not to tell anyone. I...oh." His face fell knowing that he had just broke that promise. Ritza slapped the back of Roy's head "Ow!" he complained loudly. Ritza tried to hid her smile as she straightened her back and saluted.  
"Sorry sir, but that is for Ash. I believe that was her method." Her lips twitched up slightly. To her surprise he said nothing but smiled down at the photo again before tucking them away in the drawer.  
"Right." Colonel Mustang said suddenly standing and turning her way "I think we sat in the dark for long enough." He smiled and turned to open the curtains.

Not long after Fullmetal stormed in, "Here's your report Colonel bastard." he said slapping a piece of paper in front of the man. Mustang looked at the scrawled letter's and could make out a couple 'Colonel Bastard's sprinkled generously through out the piece. Instead of retorting with some joke about Ed's height he remained silent. Ed was so much like Ashly, they looked nothing alike but their attitude were the same. Although Ash wasn't much for shouting they were both independent and good older siblings, even if she and Roy were not related. Ed gave Mustang a look before asking "You're not going to say anything?"  
Mustang looked up at him with a smirk "Do I have to tell you about your **_short _**comings each time?"  
Ed launched into a rant about his height and how Roy's head was so big it probably has it's own gravitational pull and then said something eerily familiar.

"Your head's so full of air that it stretched you out."

Roy gasped in shock as the image of a 15 year old Ashly stood in place of Ed. He felt his eyes tear up, Ed always reminded him of Ashly but it had never made him react like this. He assumed it was because of the day.  
There she stood all sass and smirking like she always did, Roy had learned his best smirks from her. There was a glint in her eye as if she knew something he didn't, her skinny frame lent against his couch and baggy shirt hanging off her shoulder. He was half expecting her to call him an asshat, but what he heard was very different.

"Oi, Bastard. You ok?" Roy closed his eyes and shook his head as Ed's voice snapped him out of the trance he was in. When he opened his eyes the image was gone and only Ed stood in front of him looking uncertain as to what to do. Roy looked down at his paper work, avoiding eye contact with Ed. "Thank you Fullmetal, you may leave."

OOOOOO

Ritza glanced up as Ed passed her desk, his face twisted in confusion. "Everything Ok Ed?" She asked hoping Roy hadn't broken down in front of the boy. Roy would hate himself for it and scare Ed in the process. Ed turned to her "Yeah just...Mustang's acting weird." his mouth was open to continue but Ritza put her hand up to stop him.  
"Not here. Come with me." She got up and walked to the nearest place no one would hear them, which at the time was the staff room. Once there she locked the door and turned to Ed. "Tell me everything."  
Ed lent on the coffee table in the middle of the room where six comfy chairs sat scattered around it."Well first I gave him my report and he just stared at it sort of quiet. Then I asked if he was going to say anything, he said something about my height, I started to shout about how I'm not small , I'm still growing and he just had a moon for a head complete with gravitational pull." He fell silent after looking down.  
"And then." Ritza prompted.  
Ed shrugged "Then he sort of stared at me, I was talking to him but it seemed he didn't hear." He became quiet "I think he was about to cry." He looked up at her, no longer the state alchemist but Ed, the young boy who had seen many horrors no child should see. "Did I hurt his feelings, i mean we normally talk like that and i..."  
"No Ed." Ritza stopped him. She moved to one of the chairs and motioned for him to sit beside her, which he did. "Today is a hard day for him." her eyes fell to her hands "You see, we lost a very dear friends in the war. Roy had grown up with her and they were like brother and sister. Today would have been her birthday." she said needing him to understand and leave Roy for the moment.

Both were quiet for a time, one remembering and the other letting this news sink in. The sadness was so thick you could have sliced it with a knife, then Ed broke the silence though the depressing feeling still draped over them like a suffocating blanket of despair.  
"What was her name? Was she an alchemist?"

Ritza nodded "Ashly Summers, static strike alchemist. She always thought the title was stupid, she said it was electricity in general not just static electricity she used."

It seemed Ed would have to look this woman up.

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**So here's another chapter, hope you enjoyed.**

**Laters**

**\- Huntress**


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